11-4-13
Halloween
Specific Purpose: To inform my audience about Halloween.
Central Idea: The origins, evolution, and traditions of Halloween.
Introduction:
Did you know that every year in the U.S. alone, seven billion dollars are spent on Halloween? Two billion of that just on candy.
I will be telling you about where Halloween began, how it has changed over the years, and some traditions families follow.
According to the survey I sent out via email to my class mates, they do not know much about where Halloween began and all of the traditions. I hope that sharing my information, I can teach them that Halloween was once a satanic holiday and that it has changed a lot over time.
With a lot of time spent on research, I have learned how Halloween came to be such a popular holiday and why people celebrate it.
According to www.diamondbackonline.com carved pumpkins were originally meant to protect against evil spirits.
I will begin with telling how Halloween came to be a holiday and what it was originally intended to do.
Body:
Halloween began long ago with the Celts people.
The Celts were people who worshiped the beauty of nature. They worshiped a Sun God and believed that without him, they would not live. They also worshipped Samhain who was the lord of the dead and of the cold, dark winter season. They believed that on October 31 Samhain would call together all of the dead and these souls would take on the shape of an animal. They believed that all creatures wandered the Earth on that night. This was called the Vigil of Samhain.
The Druids, which were the priests of the Celtic people, would build fires on the hilltops in belief that the large fires would help to strengthen the Sun God, and give him power enough to overcome the lord of darkness so that the sun season could continue. They believed that the fires were sacred, therefore they burned dried crops and sacrificed animals to help strengthen the Sun God. At midnight they stop
Cited: http://www.halloweenhistory.org/ http://www.diamondbackonline.com/opinion/article_861167b2-3cfa-11e3-8c60-001a4bcf6878.html http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/TLresources/units/Byrnes-celebrations/halloween.html http://www.xtimeline.com/timeline/History-of-Halloween http://listverse.com/2013/10/31/10-spooky-facts-about-halloween/